The recession risks in the US economy stem mostly from the financial markets' problems, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole said today, but those problems do not yet justify predicting a recession. "2008 looks to be a year of rising growth," he told a meeting of financial planners in St. Louis. Poole's text was released to reporters. "Economic forecasters expect slow expansion in the first half of the year and a quickening pace in the second half," he said. While that is still the consensus among Fed officials, at least in their public statements, private forecasters are growing increasingly pessimistic. Several have now said the US is either about to enter or already in a recession. For his part, Poole said "it's too early to tell right now," whether the housing sector recession will drag the rest of the economy down with it. Behind the subprime mess, Poole said he saw "borrowers who cannot repay, mortgage brokers putting people into unsuitable loans, and investors who did not to their homework." Unfortunately, he added, all of those are familiar mistakes with familiar lessons to be "re-learned".